Abstract
Background This paper maps scientific publications to identify areas of CRC screening that are currently receiving greatest emphasis in South African research, as means, to identify the inequality in CRC screening research. Reviewing the publications can assist to identify research funding and research capacity gaps. It can also identify potential for collaboration of authors and institutions to reduce the inequalities. Methods We used bibliometrics to identify and map the scientific publications on CRC screening related to South Africa (SA).The search utilised three databases, namely: Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed to identify articles published between January 2000 to August 2020. We identified the document by type, research areas, journal type, affiliated countries and research organisations, authors with most publications, and funding sources. Results Forty-eight of the 368 publications were included for bibliometric analysis. Of these, there were 88% original articles; 6% were reviews; 4% were books and 2% were abstracts of meetings. The top CRC screening research areas were oncology (21%); gastroenterology and hepatology (13%), public, environmental, occupational health (13%) and genetics and heredity (13%).The top four journals that have published the CRC screening related to South Africa were the South African Medical J. Surgery (10%); South African Medical Journal (7%); Clinical Genetics (5%) and Colorectal Diseases (5%). 19% of articles were published in 2019. There were 28 (58%) articles with first authors from South Africa. There were ten publications without funding declared (21%). The top five research organisations from South Africa that published the most CRC screening research were University of Witwatersrand (36%); University of Western Cape (18%); University of Pretoria (14%); University of Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal (11%). Conclusion Research and development of novel CRC screening technologies cannot be overemphasised, as catalyst for diverse screening alternatives that are less invasive, affordable and accessible to all those in need to expand access, coverage and increase uptake at local level. Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Bibliometric; Screening; Colonoscopy; Scientific landscape; Inequalities; Cancer; South Africa.
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